


corner of your heart

by forcynics



Series: vampire diaries ficathon fills [8]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Werewolf Transformation, elena/stefan is still a thing but there's no cheating it's just about her and tyler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-26
Updated: 2011-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-24 04:11:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6141075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forcynics/pseuds/forcynics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When she finds out that Tyler Lockwood could very well be a werewolf, it feels like her breaking point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	corner of your heart

 

 

 

When she finds out that Tyler Lockwood could very well be a werewolf, it feels like her breaking point. She’s lost people who were much closer to her, watched her friend’s struggle to survive in a brand new supernatural life, but somehow Tyler is what she can’t accept. He’s supposed to be normal. He’s the kid she’s known her whole life who’s not supposed to get sucked into any of this, who’s supposed to be _Tyler_ and nothing more.

She catches his eye in the hallway from time to time, and always averts her glance. She doesn’t know how much he knows – and he certainly doesn’t realize how much _she_ knows – but she just can’t look at him, because then she ends up questioning how any of this can be real – it seems anything but.

He looks the same as he always has: same short hair, same strong build, same dark eyes.

She’s the one who’s changed: she can’t look him in the eye anymore.

 

 

 

Caroline’s the one that fills her in – “ _Tyler killed Someone”._ The Someone almost doesn’t matter, because as soon as she hears “Tyler killed” she shuts down. She can’t help picturing it, what Caroline is describing. His eyes, gold, changing, _proof_.But this is Tyler. This is a boy that she’s grown up with, a boy she never imagined being touched by any of this. This is random, this is unexpected, this is unfair. This can’t be happening.

She refuses to accept that this is happening – or she would if it would change anything. Instead, she forces a nod, clenches her teeth, and accepts that this is yet another problem to be dealt with.

But it’s also yet another person whose life will never be the same.

And that’s something she understands too well.

 

 

 

She bumps into him – literally – in the entrance to the Grill, the day after his first full moon. Once again, she got the story from Caroline. There’s a silly, maternal part of her that wishes she could have been there for him too. Or maybe that’s the guilt talking, as if Tyler is her fault as well, as if everyone who’s been pulled into this is her fault.

“Hey,” she manages when she’s stepped back, swallowing and staring at him. He still looks the same, like the Tyler she’s known for so long – except for his eyes. His eyes look older. There’s a wariness, a fear, in those eyes, that she recognizes, because she noticed it in her own a while back. It never disappears.

“Hey,” is his only response, an echo followed by a curt nod. She wants to say more, say something that will help – if words really can – but he doesn’t know that she knows about any of this, and so she just summons up a smile before heading past him into the Grill.

She can’t get those eyes out of her mind, though – and can’t decide if they scare or sadden her more.

 

 

 

Her heart – which was beating frantically with terror and adrenaline as she hid from Brady, leading him around the cabin, and which didn’t stop pounding as she watched Stefan rip the werewolf’s heart out and then fell into his arms naturally – pauses for a moment to simply ache as she sees Tyler step out behind Stefan.

It feels just as natural, maybe even _more_ natural, to wrap her arms around _him_ , pull him close to her like she’s wanted to do for so long now. Face buried in his shoulder, holding him tightly and breathing him in. The hug says _I’m sorry_. But even more than that, it says _I’m here._

She’s finally allowed to be _there_ for him, finally allowed to let out everything she’s been feeling since she learned what he was, and she doesn’t really want to pull away.

 

 

 

She’s in the kitchen, sitting at the table and trying to absorb the events of the night and calm down; Stefan’s still outside, on the phone with Damon to fill him in. She doesn’t notice Tyler’s come into the room until he speaks–

“How do you do it?”

She starts a little, lifts her head, eyebrows knitting together. “Do what?”

He gestures vaguely around them. “This. Everything.” He won’t say it. The supernatural. The vampires. The werewolves. The curse. “I mean, you’re not... you’re still _human_ , and you’re involved in this stuff- I don’t... I don’t get it.” He looks so uncomfortable, a mess of tensed-up boy and confusion and pain.

She doesn’t know how to answer the question, so she doesn’t, counters him instead: “You’re still human, too, Tyler.”

He starts to shake his head, and she gets up from the table, slowly walks around it, meets his eyes with her own. “ _You’re still human_ ,” she insists. His eyes are shining, and his jaw is clenched to keep it all in, but that gives way when she wraps her arms around him again.

A second passes before he pulls her in so tightly it hurts, crushing her to him, and she just tightens her own hold desperately, feeling like she’s breaking inside from all the pain he’s radiating, everything that’s crashing out into them both, from them both, she doesn’t know anymore.

Too many seconds to count pass before he loosens his arms from around her and steps back, but only slightly. She’s still standing close enough to see the line that separates his dark brown from the black in his eyes.

“I have to leave, Elena,” he says slowly, and she knows he’s not just talking about the cabin.

She presses her lips together tightly. There’s a part of her that wants to tell him to stay, but it’s not her place, because she isn’t really anything to him except a girl he’s known his whole life, and maybe that should be enough but it’s not.

So she only manages a soft “I guess this is goodbye, then,” feeling so helpless it actually hurts. But then again, everything hurts right now.

He nods, jaw tight once more, and for whatever reason can’t seem to get any other words out. Just nods and turns and leaves, and once he’s gone from the room, she allows herself to slide to the floor, leaning back against the leg of the table and pulling her knees close. She allows herself to cry too, hot tears stinging her cheeks as she thinks that she’s lost yet another person who’s always been there and the pattern never seems to stop.

Stefan’s at her side instantly when he comes back in and sees her, asking her what’s wrong, taking her in his arms gently, but she just shakes her head and shakes her head and chokes out something about how she’s fine, it’s just everything hitting her at once after such an awful night.

She doesn’t say the name “Tyler” once, because she doesn’t think she can.

 

 

 


End file.
